How Paco got to stay with us
by Tetra2
Summary: When the land lord of the Santos family changes the rules for their apartment building banning pets Maya enlists her brothers help to try and convince him to let Paco stay. A/N: Finished although it may be revised. Slight edits will happen to correct mistakes.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hello this is one of my first stories and I am a bit new to the actual fan fiction site, I have always had an interest in creative writing and so here I am. Maya and Miguel has always been something that I found to be funny and it really gave me a new profound appreciation for the Spanish I learned in school this year. It was amazing when I first watched it-they used Spanish that I learned in school the same year! It really motivated me to continue with Spanish. (Thanks PBS?) But without further ado:

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 **POV:** Miguel Santos

Hi my name is Miguel Santos and I have this crazy sister named Maya, she gets these crazy ideas all the time. Now that I think about it she is like a one person think tank! But there was this one day when her "think tank" powers broke _..._

"Miguel! Miguel! Wake up!"

"Huh? Wha?... Ugh... Five more minutes" I mumbled and went lump crashing back down onto my comfy pillow trying to ignore Maya.

"Miguelito please wake up." I finally rolled over fully awake. Unlike most people once I'm up and not sleeping anymore I'm fully energized. Breakfast is just fuel for the fire. "What is it Maya?" I asked.

"We have to do something!"

"About what?" I asked. "We have to do something about the new pet rule". I was still lying in bed on one side with Maya sitting down on the side of my bed. "What new pet rule?" I asked curiously. "You didn't hear? The new rule says that we can't have pets in the building".

"But, but, Paquito!" I stammered a bit shocked. "Mama is trying to convince the Land lord to let him stay but we need to do something too, to prove to him that Paquito can stay". I got up and I was almost going to agree with her but did she just say that we to do something? _Ay Mi_. "Maya," I said in a now calm voice, "why can't we just let mama handle it?". "Absolutely not! We need to do everything we can to help prove that-" I interrupted her, "Okay okay-I get it!". Except she didn't have a plan.

"There is one problem Miguelito". "What is it?" "I don't have a... A plan...

 _Dios mio..._

Today is going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **POV:** Miguel Santos

Maya left my room and closed the door behind her and I got up and quickly threw on a light blue T-Shirt with a collar and my dark blue cargo pants. I never really was a fan of jeans, they can be so itchy sometimes. Then again I hear a good wash can soften them up. I opened my door and went to the kitchen. "Buenos dias, Miguel" said Mama greeting me. It was Saturday so the whole family should be home. "Good morning mom" I said. "How did you sleep?" Papi asked curiously. "Good, I had a dream that I got an A on my math test-oh wait, I -did- get an A on my math test!" I said happily and revealed a sheet of paper which had 100 written and circled on it. "Good job Miguel!" My mother said happily. "Well Rosa I am off to open up the pet shop" "Bye Hun, I'll be down in a few minutes". _Estoy Contento!_

I poured myself a bowl of cereal with milk and began to dig in. I thought about how to deal with the new pet rule thing, surely Maya will come up with something. But to be on the safe side might as well ask Mama. "Mama, what is this new pet rule I'm hearing about?" "Ay, Lo Siento Miguel, I forgot to tell you but we might not be able to keep Paco".

 _ **"SQAWK! Look at me! I'm Paco ! Paco want stay! Paco want stay! SQWAK!"**_

Paco landed on my shoulder and I gave him a small bite of my cereal. I looked at Paco admirably would this be the last day I saw him in this apartment? What if we have to set him free? He wouldn't last a day out in the wild. My fears began to over take me so I cleaned up my breakfast and went to Maya's Room.

I hesitantly knocked fearing that this would lead to more trouble then what it was worth. Maya said to come in and I opened the door and stepped in. "So Maya, what's the plan?" "I told you... I don't have one". My siblinghood took over for a minute: "You don't have a plan?!" I said mocking her. "That's a first". "Miguel! This is why I'm asking you-because you're the smartest and wisest person I know besides Mama and Papi". I was flattered for an instant but I realized what she was doing, she was drowning me in kindness. "Hey... I know what you're doing" "No, no, Miguel I mean it". "You really mean it?" I asked. "Yep. I really mean it". "Ugh, fine I'll think of a plan but I'm not getting involved when it goes wrong".

I stood in her room looking like a statue staring out the window until it hit me, "Why don't you make a presentation about how pets or in this case Paco should be able to stay?" Here it comes... " _Eso es!" Ay._ "Thank you Miguelito" she said and she quickly kissed my forehead and ran out the room. Ugh, what is it with girls and kissing? I left Maya's room and went back into mine and began doodling and sketching ideas for my next drawing. We have an art project coming up in school and I want to be ready and already have my idea down so I can get ahead. Eventually after around thirty minutes of drawing doodles and sketches I had enough and took out a comic book and laid down on my bed and began reading. Some times I wish I could write a comic book. But I'm not much of a writer, although I am a good drawer.

It's probably been an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Suddenly Maya bursts through my door, I automatically said "Maya, you're supposed to knock-Oh..." One look at her hair and clothes. There was black dirt all over her clothes and her hair was a mess. Is that a wire in her hair too? "Miguel!" "Maya, what happened? Que pasó?" "I made the presentation like you said and it had all of these beautiful images of Paco and bulleted points of why he should stay-" I cut her off again. "Maya, you're babbling, get to the point". "Oh, yes, right, when I tried to set up the projector all the wires were tangled and the projector itself was really dirty". "Look Maya, mama has invited the Land Lord over for dinner to convince him, why don't we just let mama handle it?" "No! Have you even seen the Land Lord? He probably doesn't even hear mama, he is like this giant masculine creature!" So in short wires went flying everywhere, Maya got dirty from trying to fix the projector and the wires and her hair got messy from doing all the work and having the projector fall on her head. Also her hair got a lot of static electricity so I hear an occasional "Ow!".

Maya sat down and then looked down at the floor and almost looked like she was going to cry as her sole attempt failed. "Aw, don't be sad Maya," I said sympathetically "But I am sad, estoy triste. No estoy contento." "I'll think of something but first you need to wash up and second, we need some back up". So Maya left and took a quick shower and I made a few phone calls to Theo, Maggie and Chrissy. Maya got out of the shower and the door bell rang. "I got it!" I screamed and skedaddled to the door and opened it.

Sure enough Theo, and Maggie were there. Chrissy said she couldn't make it. "Hey, Miguel," Theo said, "Hiiiiii, Migueeeeeeel," Maggie said in one of those weird girl voices where they stretch the ending. "Come in, come in, Maya will be right out and we need all hands on deck for this one". So I explained the situation while we were waiting for Maya. "No pets huh?" muttered Theo. "That's what the rules say now. I called you guys in to help come up with a plan". Then Maggie chirped in, "Why don't you have a bird festival?!" A Festival de pájaros? I was doubtful.

"It's an interesting idea," I said "but I don't think it would work out...-" "Of course it will!" said Maya. "Oh boy", I rolled my eyes and slumped down in my chair smug and sure that the plan wouldn't work. "Because Miguel is going to help us!"

"WHA?!" I said frantically while falling out of my chair. Then Theo said "If Miguel is in, then I'm in". "And I'm in to help out my friend, Maya." said Maggie.

I stayed on the floor looking up at the ceiling. "Please tell me I'm dreaming..." Then I saw Maya's face look down right at me. "Come on Miguelito!" and she ended up dragging me to the phone and literally dragging me into this mess. I just lay there on the kitchen floor while Maya made a phone call. "Yes?" "Uh-huh..." "I'd like two exotic birds". She continued talking and finally hung up and then dragged me back to the living room.

"We can have it at the community center" Maya said.

"Miguel and I can set up plants and bird feeders and even a bird fountain". "We can?" I said in a I-don't-want-to-do-this voice. "Absolutely!". Theo said enthusiastically as I got up.

"I'll go plan out the show, we can have birds flying from side to side across the stage with Paco". Maggie exclaimed.

"Ok! This sounds great!" Maya shouted. I groaned as I went downstairs and collected a few plants along with Theo for our bird festival. How is it even a festival when we only have Paco and two other birds?

"Come on Miguel! I'll race you to the community center". "Oh you're on!" I replied and took off running for the center with Theo right on my tail. It was difficult not dropping the plants we collected while running so we went a bit slower then usual but it was still a close race. We finally arrived at the center out of breath and we took a short break before setting up the plants. Theo and I worked well together and we were friends since day one.

We finished quickly due to our team work. I could never imagine losing a friend like Theo. And then Maya and Maggie came in with Paco, except instead of having two other birds they came with something unimaginable.


	3. Chapter 3

"Maya?! How did you get all of these birds? There is like... like twenty of them! Maybe thirty!" I exclaimed.

"Well apparently they gave us twenty five birds for the price of two. Good deal right?" Maya calmly replied.

 **"SQAWK! Good deal, twenty five for price of two, good deal si!"** Paco exclaimed. The other twenty five birds began to fly around the room landing on wooden planks that we set up as makeshift branches on the walls. _Ay mi,_ _Veinticinco aves?_

"When is the land lord coming?" I asked.

"He should be here in ten minutes". Maya said.

"I'll go behind the stage and prepare Paco for the show, he is the star of the show and needs to be perfect!" Maggie exclaimed, and with that she took off with Paco to the backstage where I guess they would prepare. Suprisingly the other birds were behaving well.

"Wow Maya I'm impressed," I said "these birds aren't making a wreck, they aren't tearing down the curtains, knocking things over, destroying the stage lights or making a mess". And of course I just jinxed us. Oops. Suddenly the birds began to fly all at once and they began to shower the place in feathers and knock over some plants we set up. They flew into the window blinds and ripped them apart and tore the stage curtain. They were even pecking Theo!

"Hey, stop it!" Theo said half laughing and half annoyed. Then I heard Maggie scream and a parrot was trying to peck her. Suddenly Paco swooped in like a fighter plane and tackled the hostile parrot. It then evolved into an aerial dog fight between the two and they took off into the confusion.

Next thing I know I'm down on the ground next to Maya who I guess ran into me. "How much time do we have?" she asked.

I looked at my watch "Uh... five minutes-" " _CINCO MINUTOS?!"_ Now Maya sprung into action mode.

"Okay, we need to catch all of these birds and-" The sound of a door opening cut Maya off. In stepped a tall man wearing a blazer with a black tie. "What the?" he exclaimed in confusion.

"I'm looking for a certain... Maya Santos... has anyone seen her? She told me there was a bird show and well... I wasn't expecting this". I shoved Maya off the stage towards the man. I then hopped off the stage myself and followed suit.

"Ah, hello Maya," the man said in a Deep voice. "Is everything under control? It seems tha-" Maya interjected and cut him off "Oh yes! Everything is quite all right. Just take a seat here and wait a minute". She then turned to me and whispered "Stall him."

"Stall him? How am I supposed to do that?" But Maya already took off to the backstage.

The man turned to me "So... who are you?".

"I'm Miguel Santos, Maya's sister. I apologize for the uh... mess". He nodded and continued to speak.

"Well this is partly why I banned pets in the apartment, they can cause a mess when not under control".

I spoke up, "Well uh, you see uh... pets can be fun for the whole family. Our Paco is such a nice parrot. He can even speak sentences!".

Suddenly the entire stage curtain crashed down to the floor and made a loud bang. Uh-oh... _dios mio._ How is Maya going to get out of this? Speaking of which Maggie and Theo stood on the stage still trying to catch the loose birds while Maya slowly trudged over here.

She sighed and spoke in a disappointed voice. "I'm uh, sorry for the mess. We were just trying to prove to you that Paco should be allowed to stay in our building. I just thought that a bird show would do this, except instead of getting two more birds we got twenty five more!" and with that Paco came crashing to the ground and tumbled up next to me. I picked him up and put him on my arm and held him up.

The man smiled "Well, I can see that you really do care about your pet bird. But I do believe I am having dinner with your family in two hours. Why don't you clean up here and get ready?" And with that he got up and left the room-if you could still call it a "room".

So for the next hour and a half we cleaned up the place and threw out all the trash and locked the extra birds up for transport back to where they came from. We were exhausted and Theo and Maggie went home while Maya, Paco and I went home to our apartment.

I opened the door and stumbled in falling on the relaxing cushioned couch. I then got up to allow Maya to fall on the couch and went to my room where I fell onto my bed. I was shot and was going to go to sleep but...

"Miguel!"

"Huh? What...?" I said tiredly. "Oh no! No, no, no, no, no. Listen Maya. We should just let Mama do all the talking. Look how it ended when we tried to work it out ourselves? It ended in disaster".

"Si, I suppose you're right Miguelito". I was releaved that Maya wasn't going to do any more scheming and planning.

"Now you should go get some rest. Dinner is going to be ready soon". I said. Maya left the room and I fell asleep for the few minutes I had to rest.

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 **Authors Note:** This is not the end of the story as you can probably see. There will at least be one last chapter focusing on the dinner experience but I would appreciate any feedback. Notably on the writing itself, like how it is structured. In the last chapter I kind of grouped all of my quotations together in chunky paragraphs but in this chapter I spaced them out in separate paragraphs. What is better? The spaced out versions?


	4. Chapter 4

Kylie was next to me and she was talking about cheerleading, then she began to call my name as I stood there silently.

"Miguel... Miguel! **MIGUEL!** "

I sat up staring at a white painted ceiling, as I looked around I realized I was in my room and that Mama was calling me for dinner and that I had a dream about Kylie.

"Coming mom!" I shouted back. Kylie's kinda hot... Okay, I admit it, Kylie is really hot... I mean not only that but she is so nice and kind to me and Maya. Speaking of Maya I guess she is a good sister to me as she doesn't make fun of my crush on Kylie. As my thoughts drifted from fantasizing about Kylie and back to reality I got up and walked out of my room. As I tiredly walked to the dinner table the smell of fresh tacos and warm corn chips perked me up. I took a seat next to Maya and looked at the table. There was corn chips, tacos, empanadas, tamales, salad and Mexican rice. Wow Mama really out did herself. I served myself two tacos and some corn chips. I took a big bite out of my taco and got some sauce on my face.

As I realized this I took a napkin and wiped the sauce off. Except now I felt a burp coming.

 **"BURP!"** Uh... "Perdón" I said half embarrassed and half amused as Mami, Papi and the land lord looked at me with their smiles. Maya began to lean over to me and whispered "Miguel, what are we going to do?" Oh boy.

I replied "Nothing Maya, just let Mama and Papi handle it. Just take my advice for once, okay?"

"Okay, Miguelito". Now that Maya finally decided to take my advice I continued to eat my meal, serving myself some more corn chips and enjoying them. While this happened our parents talked about, well, us, as any parent would with their own children. Eventually we excused ourselves as they, the landlord, Mama, and Papi were still having desert. They didn't exactly bring up Paco at dinner so I assumed that's what they were talking about. Of course Maya started to worry about it. I went into my room and Maya followed me in. I laid down on my bed getting comfortable.

"No te preocupes, Maya," I said reassuringly, "I'm sure our parents will work it out." I hope... To be honest I'm starting to doubt myself.

"Lo siento, it's just that it's taking a long time". She said concerned.

"Just trust me, trust our parents? Ok?"

"Ok." She said still a bit concerned. Maybe it's just my older brother instincts that always tells me her ideas will always turn into a disaster. I think those three minutes of being alone in this world really changed the way I looked at things or gave me some more logic or smarts or a sixth sense.

Finally the land lord left and we went out to the living room where Mami and Papi greeted us, they were smiling.

Mama spoke "Niños, we're so proud of you! The land lord told us all about your 'bird festival' and your efforts to impress him," We both looked up hopefully "and he said he never saw a group of children determined to go to such lengths to impress him." "You two were real Santos's out there" Papi said encouragingly.

"So... Does this mean Paco can stay?" Maya asked hopefully. To which mama replied while chuckling

"Yes mi hija, Paco can stay for good." Woot! Victory! I nudged Maya and boasted a little

"See Maya, you just have to trust your older brother-really, you just have to trust Mama and Papi!" I said gleefully.

 **"SQWAK! Paco can stay! Paco can stay!"** Paco began doing a victory dance on the counter and we all laughed.

"Okay children," Papi said "it's getting late, time to go to bed."

"Sí Papi" Maya and I both said affectionately. After we got washed up I went into my cozy bed with my pajamas on and slipped under the covers content and then suddenly...

"Miguel," called Maya as she entered my room. "I just wanted to say you were right; I should've trusted Mama and Papi."

"Good," I said, "I'm glad you realize that, now please, no more crazy ideas!" I said sleepily.

"No promises." She teased and then closed the door leaving me to my thoughts and the darkness of my room. From that they forward Maya learned to trust Mama and Papi with handling things although she still gets these big ideas-but that's my sister for you. A one person think tank with crazy ideas and no matter how hard I try I can't stop loving her and she can't stop thinking.

 **The End**

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Authors note: I may rewrite this later on just to improve and what not but I will be correcting some spelling, punctuation and other grammatical mistakes. Moral of the story: Trust your parents. They're there for you. I can't say that every single parent is going to be the best parent in the world, there are the unfortunate who are alcoholics or even criminals or abusers but assuming you have a decent family they will be there for you.


End file.
